Building a learning community

Empathy, most valued quality in a teacher

Empathy is an emotion which every person goes through. A power to understand one’s situation and react accordingly. It means the power to feel the pain of others, to feel what the person is going through, to reduce his pain by eliminating his problems and making things better. Empathy is basically to understand the pain of others.

Krishna of Class 7, is one of the wonderful student of my class. He is very shy by nature but naughty too. He is very good in all the activities and studies. Few months ago he lost his mother which is a great loss for anyone. His emotions were shaken by this incident, mother is one who supports her child at any cost and who is next to God.To lose his mother at such an early stage in life was a very big loss for him. Whenever I saw him, I felt bad for him. Post this life changing incident I found him quiet and lost in his own world. He tried to concentrate in his studies and other activities but he couldn’t. One day I found him doing some naughty things in my class. I was so happy and felt he was trying to overcome the situation, but at the same time it was my duty to teach him, what is right and what is wrong and how to behave in a class. I called him and asked him to please behave properly in a class, no hard words or punishment. I did this very politely, with great concern and found him to be understanding and caring. In real life I really want to contribute a bit in his life as a teacher or as a mother so that my inner conscious will be satisfied.

Post by Nidhi Sambyal , a teacher at DBN Amarvilla School in Jammu; you can contact her by email nsl.av@dbntrust.in, please.